Members Absent: (Please note any unexcused absences regarding meeting attendance in a separate email to the ALSC President, ALSC Executive Director, and your Priority Group Consultant; please also note that media evaluation and award committee attendance is mandatory during both the Annual Conference following the first Midwinter and the Midwinter Meeting at which the selections are made):

Natalie Schun, Mary Sorhus, Sandy Wee

Guests:

Julie Cosaro, Carrie Banks

Summarize Committee discussion, any decisions reached, and follow-up action needed, including suggestions for future programs or publications based on the committee’s work.

The committee approved the minutes. Stephanie encouraged committee members to become involved in ALSC leadership opportunities.

In reviewing the ALSC Strategic Plan, 2012-2017, there are several activities to which our committee is contributing.

We reviewed our list of organizations and invited members to sign up for at least two they will be assigned to liaison with. If members have suggestions for other organizations to pursue, email Stephanie and Nancee. The committee discussed a variety of methods for contacting our organizations.

Send org. liaison a letter (using Haley’s sample as a template);

Contact the local chapter of the org. (if one exists in your community or state) to find out who to contact at the national level;

Contact the PR or marketing person listed on the organization’s web site.

Our goal is informational – to raise awareness with the liaison org. about what ALSC does and can do for them. We do need to make sure we mention Dia.

Use our committee’s page on ALA Connect to keep track of our communications with our organizations. This is our most private way of storing information and communicating. We can download files, change the information when necessary and reload them to our page. Please download this helpful guide if you need assistance working with ALA Connect: http://connect.ala.org/files/96382/connecting2012_pdf_20313.pdf.

We discussed our committee name. Members agreed we would submit the paperwork to the ALSC board to request a name change.

2012 ALA Annual: Poster Session

Feb. 29 is the deadline for finding out whether our proposal is accepted. At this time, we’ll proceed as if it will be. Stephanie will let committee know when she hears from ALA.

Poster session goal: to inform our audience about what national organizations we communicate with & to share best practices regarding how libraries can connect and partner with the local chapters of those organizations.

The following members volunteered to help with the poster session at ALA annual:

Beth Gallego

Nancee Dahms-Stinson

Sylvie Shaffer

Cecily Pilzer

Sabrina Carnesi (if it does not conflict with a committee meeting)

Merri Monks

Cecily and Sylvie will help create the physical poster, with Kristan serving as an advisor and Stephanie and Nancee providing any necessary assistance.

Suggestions for the poster features included: the logos of the organizations & short quotations about impact; we will devise a way for viewers to share their names & email addresses so we can follow up with information about how they partnered with a local chapter of one of our organizations. It was also suggested we provide them with postcards that have a QR code that links to our wiki and the wiki address.

A brief meeting took place after the committee adjourned to discuss more details and lay out tasks for the poster session.

Other

Julie Cosaro joined us and reminded us that our committee is very important to the ALSC Strategic Plan. The ALSC Board is looking at launching an Advocacy website (will be considered by Budget Committee). Our work to collect best practices feeds well into that goal. The Quicklist Committee can create lists for any of our orgs. Julie recommended Autism Speaks as a potential partner organization.

Cecily is on ballot for Caldecott and asked for our consideration for votes. Sylvie asked the same; she is on the ballot for Sibert;

Carrie Banks joined us briefly to talk about her upcoming ALA program about working with incarcerated children and youth and others.

The committee adjourned.

How did the Committee’s activities since the last conference and during this conference help to achieve your objectives and meet the timetable set by the Committee?

Discussions online and at the midwinter meeting provided Committee members with a clearer idea about the procedures for initiating and continuing communications with the organizations.

How have the Committee’s activities since the last conference support and further ALSC’s Strategic Plan? Specifically, after each relevant goal area and objective below, describe how your activities contributed to the strategic plan.

Goal Area: Advocacy

ALSC will promote and advance excellent library service for all children.

Objective 1: Increase awareness of the value of excellent library service for all children.

(EXAMPLE: The second phase of the Kids!@ your library public awareness campaign was launched on X date. The launch included a variety of materials and resources [x, y, z] available for free for members to use with their community.)

If you have recommendations for changes in your committee structure or charge, please describe in detail by filling out a Form K. Submit the completed form to the ALSC President, Priority Group Consultant, Organization and Bylaws co-chairs, and ALSC Executive Director.

If you have any committee activity or issues that require Board action, please complete a Board of Directors Action Form.